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The Indian cricket board has unveiled the five cricket teams for the new Women’s Premier League, the sales of which generated roughly $572.7 million.
Owners of the IPL’s Mumbai, Delhi, and Bangalore teams were each awarded a franchise, with the Adani Group and Capri Global Holdings taking the other two spots to fill out the T20 tournament.
- The Adani Group’s Adani Sportsline, which also owns the ILT20’s Gulf Giants and the Legends League Cricket’s Gujarat Giants, forked over $158 million to purchase the Ahmedabad franchise — the highest WPL franchise bid.
- Capri Global, which owns the ILT20’s Sharjah Warriors, paid $92.84 million for the Lucknow franchise — the cheapest bid.
“Today is a historic day in cricket as the bidding for teams of the inaugural WPL broke the records of the inaugural men’s IPL in 2008,” cricket board secretary Jay Shah tweeted.
The cricket board, known as BCCI, has staged a three-team Women’s T20 Challenge since 2018.
Media Milestone
The March tournament garnered interest even before the teams were announced. The BCCI sold media rights to the competition for the next five years were sold earlier this month to Viacom 18 for $117 million.
“I believe that with a record media rights valuation earlier and now with these high bids, the league will be a commercially independent and self-sustaining property,” said Shah.
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